My Rough Quarter, A Night in Waikiki, and Drug Tests

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to implement some new strategies in my classroom. I’ve, in essence taken a step to the side. I am leaving most of the teaching to the group dynamic. This is having some unforeseen consequences in some classes, where no learning and no work is being done or accomplished at all. I’m thinking that the students need to be seated with this idea right from the start. My mission this quarter will be to work at being the “guide on the side”, but due to that fact that the implementation was delayed, I am not all that excited about the outcomes that I’ll get.

I have a heterogeneous mixture in each class. There is no honors level, and there is no remedial. I am the great melting pot of ability levels. In my defense, I guess I could point out that with classes that have up to 9 identified sped, I am alone in my class with no Ed. Assistants and very little help from the homeroom teachers. I am drowning a little with my students and I am very close to the end, so I find myself drifting away from my classroom even while in class. (I used to drift away on my one and only break of the day during lunch and homeroom. Now it’s far too often.) I am making a concerted effort to be more helpful and less dramatic in front of the class. I am faced with students who don’t care and have learned that saying, “I don’t know” will get them somewhere.

With only a few weeks left, I decided to punch them all in the guts. I gave a 4 page test. Forty points of their 200 so far, to somewhat disastrous results. It was a gut check for them, and happily, many did ok, because it was open notes and they did their work. Some however, who said, “sure Mister, I did my work” proceeded to drop a big whopping 3 out of 40. They just don’t care until it matters, so many of those students dropped 2 letter grades and wondered why. But it got them I think, so we will see. Of course, I’m giving them a chance to relearn the material and show me that they know it. I’m just tired of the “Ainokea” attitude that the neighborhood breeds into them. It’s really disconcerting.

Anywho….crazy happenings at school in Hawaii. Fisrt things first, I guess I’ll let you know about the trip into Waikiki in April. We went for Amy’s birthday, but the trip also doubled as an HSTA convention, at which we got to vote on Bylaws, Beliefs and amendments. As it turned out, although it sounds boring, it was crazily interesting and heated. Some debates were silly, but there was one that was poignant and insanely combustible. The basic thing was drug testing. Being that there has been a rash of drug-related arrests of teachers, administration and school staff throughout the islands, there was a big push to OK random drug testing. In fact, as we were told in a private hour and 45 minute secret meeting, the governor gave the ultimatum that either we agreed to her contract which included random drug testing and get a raise, or get nothing. It was a sneaky trick and she should be ashamed of herself, but after insane amounts of discussion and angry e-mails being sent around the schools, the state ratified the contract 54 to 46%. IN-SANE! So, no strike, but barely. Drug testing won’t be random until 2008 at the earliest anyway, but it was the point of the thing.

We also went out the night before and the day we spent arguing, most of the people we went with skipped out, but we stayed because we were interested. It might have been a better idea to bounce, since Megan felt a bit “under the weather” as the euphemism goes. We went out to Cheesecake Factory, Moose’s, Nashville’s and some Dive-like bar for Amy’s birthday, then back to the hotel to sleep it off. Amy and Megan may have drunk more than they ever had before. It was great. There was one instance at Moose’s though, where some meatball didn’t take a hint and kept trying to hook up with Amy, while she was holding my hand. Antonio, eventually interrupted and told him that if I don’t like the guy, then neither does Antonio. It was funny. Aside from the great night with friends, and some fun debates for the state, the view from our room was spectacular. I know…priorities.

Anyway, Lots has happened since March, and I’m in desperate need to update my blog, so I will do just that very soon! So until the next time I have access to my brain and pictures…